By Park Si-sooJapan plans to buy offensive air-to-surface missiles capable of striking North Korea. Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera announced the plan on Friday. Onodera said his ministry would request a special budget for the fiscal year starting April 2018 to buy the missiles, which are designed to be launched from military aircraft to hit targets on land or at sea.The move comes after North Korea tested a new type of intercontinental missile that landed in the sea within Japan's economic zone on Nov. 29.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly called for Japan's weapon system to be reinforced for self-defense, saying the North's missile tests were an "imminent threat" to Japan and that talking to Pyongyang was "meaningless.""We are planning to introduce the JSM (Joint Strike Missile) that will be mounted on the F-35A (stealth fighter) as ‘standoff' missiles that can be fired beyond the range of enemy threats," Onodera said.The JSM, designed by Norway's Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace, has a range of 500 kilometers (310 miles) and the JASSM-ER can hit targets 1,000 kilometers away.Japan is also looking to mount Lockheed Martin's extended-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM-ER) on its F-15 fighters, according to Japanese media. The plan instantly sparked controversy because the purchase could be seen as a step against Japan's post-World War II pacifist Constitution that bans the use of force as a way to settle international disputes. The defense minister denied the allegations, saying the missiles would be for defense and Japan would rely on the United States to strike foreign countries.